Identification

The PCB has the following silkscreened on it:

Orange Pi Mini

Sunxi support

Current status

Supported.

Note: Orange Pi Mini's GMAC is not supported in the community kernel.
A commit within Orange Pi Github fork of linux-sunxi-3.4 seems to provide GMAC support for Orange Pi Mini. This has to be proved and merged into linux-sunxi.

Xunlong seems to use an important tweak of both the Linux 3.4 kernel and U-Boot networking code for the Orange Pi Mini: The GMAC driver is specifically modified to set the GMAC_TX_DELAY parameter to 3. This adjusts the relative timing of the clock and data signals to the PHY in order to compensate for differing trace lengths on the PCB (details; the pcDuino3 Nano has the same problem). Without this modification, the Ethernet port will work at 100Mbit, but not (or not reliably) at 1000Mbit. Upstream U-Boot now sets this parameter itself, so the kernel patch isn't needed any more (patch).

Images

HW-Pack

BSP

Manual build

For building u-boot, use the Orangepi_mini target (make orangepimini_config).

Tips, Tricks, Caveats

FEL mode

If no SD card is present, the A20 will automatically fall back to FEL mode (as this device has no other means of booting, like e.g. onboard NAND flash). So if you want to enforce FEL mode, you may simply remove the SD card and connect to the Orange Pi Mini via the DC input(the one next to the TF card slot upside). This also supplies power to the board at the same time.

To verify you have successfully entered FEL mode, check the output of fel version. For the Orange Pi Mini, it should look like:

LEDs

For those with a transparent case (or no case at all) the Orange Pi Mini's LED activity is good. The red power LED (D2) can be turned off.

SATA

If you wish to connect a SATA drive (2.5" mobile harddisk or SSD) to the Orange Pi Mini: Make sure your power supply is connected to the "DC-IN" port, and can deliver sufficient current (e.g. 5V/2000mA). Using the OTG port or an inadequate power supply might result in your SATA device not being detected.

Adding a serial port

TODO: The section is mostly a copy&paste from the "Banana Pi" page. Some of it may be incorrect, or might not apply to this device. Please review / rework the information, and remove this reminder when done.

While the GPIO pinout of the Orange Pi Mini is designed to be compatible to the Raspberry Pi, it's important to notice subtle differences in the serial ports. The Orange Pi Mini has some additional pins that already provide two more serial ports.

The default serial port /dev/ttyS0, used for (bootstrap) debugging and the serial console, is located at J11 - refer to the picture and instructions below. The Raspberry's "original" serial port on GPIO 14 and 15 (CON3, pins 8 and 10) can usually be accessed as /dev/ttyS2 on the Orange Pi Mini. J12 also provides another serial port on pins 4 (RXD) and 6 (TXD), which should map to /dev/ttyS3.

Now Orange Pi 2 and Orange Pi Mini 2 are released in March 2015. They are both based on a quad-core H3 CPU, and offer TF card slot, onboard Network(10/100M Ethernet RJ45), 40 pin GPIO and 4 USB type A connectors. They are difference in onboard wifi. Orange Pi 2 has wifi module, while Orange Pi Mini 2 does not have. However, the two kinds of devices do not have SATA any more.

Also known as

See also

There are several websites about Orange Pi Mini and claiming to support it. It has to be clarified, what is "official" and who is behind this sites.